If I ever walk through a baseball dugout, my biggest worry would be stepping in or touching chewing tobacco spit however the Kansas City Royals have much more to worry about after 2 players contracted chickenpox. It is assumed that the 2 infected players were not vaccinated and somehow escaped natural infection (possibly due to both Alex Rios and Kelvin Herrera being from the tropics where the virus spreads poorly).

Chickenpox, once a horrible rite of passage, has now been relegated to a rarity given the prowess the varicella vaccine. This vaccine that has nearly vanquished a disease that just over two decades ago infected 4 million, hospitalized over 10,000, and killed 150 Americans yearly. Now those numbers are 95% lower. Additionally because the same virus that causes chickenpox can years later reactivate and cause shingles the benefit of the vaccine will be far reaching as shingles and its horrible after-effect of post-herpetic neuralgia require billions of dollars of medical treatment costs annually.

Chickenpox is a very contagious disease and for those susceptible because they are too young to be vaccinated, not vaccinated for medical reasons, or not vaccinated for deliberate non-medical reasons can, for certain individuals, be a serious disease. As such, I oppose chickenpox parties for obvious reasons though maybe those anti-vaccine parents who fondly recall their beloved experiences with chickenpox might try to book the Royals dugout to give their poor children that same experience.